Ensuring a Good and Safe HDB Living Environment

In July, I had explained in Parliament that MND will study the possibility of helping the Town Councils (TCs) to retrofit their existing lifts with key enhancements and new safety features.

Last Friday, BCA recommended that lift owners update their older lifts with several features that are found in newer lift models. Some of the enhancements include protective devices to prevent unintended movement or over-speeding of the lift cars, as well as lift door sensors to detect any movements before the lift door closes.

All lift owners – be it in private or public sector buildings – should study these recommended lift enhancements and work towards incorporating them in their own lift modernisation programmes.

In the case of HDB flats, TCs are the lift owners and are responsible for their upkeep and lift enhancements. However, the costs of these enhancements are significant and will pose a considerable financial challenge to the TCs. Hence, having studied the matter carefully, I’ve asked HDB to provide additional support to the TCs.

Specifically, HDB will implement a new Lift Enhancement Programme (LEP) which will co-fund around 90% of the TCs’ costs to install the enhancement features. This is a major programme, which will involve significant government expenditure, estimated at around $450 million. But given the importance of lifts in our daily lives and in our high-rise HDB living environment, the Government is prepared to commit to this additional spending and maintain high safety standards.

The LEP will apply to existing lifts that are not due for replacement anytime soon, and will be rolled out over a period of 10 years. So we are looking at lifts that are less than 18 years in operation. For the older lifts, it will make more sense for the TCs to replace them with new lifts which will come with these enhanced features.

The TCs bear responsibility for the eventual replacement of all the lifts under their charge. This requires significant long-term expenditures. TCs must plan ahead and build up their Sinking Funds regularly over time to pay for these major expenses.

Today, the total Sinking Fund balance across all TCs is about $1 billion. This may sound like a healthy amount, but it is still not sufficient to cover the cost of future lift replacements which is estimated at almost $3 billion from now to 2035 (for some 11,500 lifts across all HDB estates). Besides lifts, there will be other cyclical maintenance and replacement works such as façade repair of HDB blocks, cyclical repainting, and replacement of water pipes/tanks. These expenses will also go up as estate infrastructure ages.

This is why every quarter, TCs are required to set aside between 30-35% of their S&CC collections and government grants into their Sinking Funds. With higher expected long-term expenditures, TCs will likely need to contribute more to their Sinking Funds, and set aside more funds for future lift replacements through a new Lift Replacement Fund.

MND will be asking all TCs to prepare and submit their financial projections for their Sinking Funds over the next 10 to 30 years. These projections will enable us to assess the appropriate levels of contribution to the TC Sinking Funds and Lift Replacement Funds.

All TCs must take a long-term view and start planning now for asset and lift replacements in their estates. This is the basis of Singapore’s success. We do not leave things to chance. But we look over the horizon, plan, and prepare for the future. This is the way to ensure a good and safe HDB living environment for all Singaporeans.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2016 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Public Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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